Beck Family Low Country Boil

Every year for Mother's Day my family throws a small country/cajun hybrid boil. These days we don't live near anywhere that has live crawfish for sale, so we overnight 5lb of crawfish from https://www.lacrawfish.com.

Equipment

  • 12-quart stock pot

  • Strainer

  • Newspaper or disposable tablecloth for serving

Core Ingredients

  • 5 lbs crawfish, live or pre-cooked (frozen is OK in a pinch)

  • 2 lbs small red potatoes, halved or quartered

  • 4-8 ears corn, cut into 2-3 inch pieces

  • 1 lb andouille sausage, cut into 2-inch chunks

  • 2 large onion, quartered

  • 4 lemons, halved

  • 2 heads garlic, whole cloves

  • Melted butter for serving

Spice Mix

  • At least 5oz mix Cajun/Creole seasoning (Tony Chachere's, Zatarain's, Old Bay, or Slap Ya Mama)

  • 2-3 bay leaves

  • 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper (adjust for heat)

  • 2 tablespoons whole peppercorns

  • 1-2 tablespoons hot sauce

Purchasing & Preparing Live Crawfish

I always make sure to cook the mudbugs the same day they are delivered. Preparing them goes like this:

  1. Carefully drop them all into the kitchen sink

  2. Run cool water over them until they are all awake and the water is running clean

  3. Carefully discard any that are already dead

Cookin'

  1. Fill pot 2/3 with water, add all spices, halved lemons (squeeze juice in first), and onion. Bring to a rolling boil.

  2. Layer in Ingredients:

    • Add potatoes, boil 8-10 minutes until half-done

    • Add corn and sausage, boil 5 minutes

    • Add crawfish, boil 3-4 minutes until bright red

  3. Turn off heat, cover, and let everything soak in the spicy broth for 20-30 minutes. This is where the magic happens!

  4. Pour everything onto a covered table. Serve with melted butter.